Wanted: Blue-collar workers

By JOEL KOTKIN CITY JOURNAL

Posted: February 5, 2012 at 3:02 a.m.

To many, America’s industrial heartland may look like a place mired in the economic past—a place that, outcompeted by manufacturing countries around the world, has too little work to offer its residents. But things look very different to Karen Wright, the CEO of Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Wright’s biggest problem isn’t a lack of work; it’s a lack of skilled workers.